


Snack Break

by rain_sleet_snow



Category: Primeval
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Family of Choice, Outsider Perspective, caving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:16:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22725283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_sleet_snow/pseuds/rain_sleet_snow
Summary: Shuffled out of the way during an important conversation, Liz and Juliet take a break and havea Kit-Kata Twix.
Relationships: James Lester/Jon Lyle, Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Comments: 6
Kudos: 11





	Snack Break

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Luka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luka/gifts).



> For Luka's birthday, beta'd by Fred!

"No-one loves a smartarse," Juliet said irritably, wedging her toe into a crack in the rock and trying to force herself upwards for the third time. She was easily as strong as Liz, wiry and fit, but she was a lot shorter, and that wasn't currently helping her case. 

"But you like me so much." Liz caught the ankle that was still on the floor and boosted Juliet up six inches more, so she could grab another handhold and heave herself into the passage above.

"Bad judgement," Juliet said with conviction, flipping over to sit on the edge of the passage, feet dangling. Liz grinned up at her, one hand still resting on the foot she'd boosted. "Are you sure you know where we're going?"

"Yeah," Liz said, and patted her pocket. A survey crinkled in its plastic protective leaf. "Budge up."

"There's nowhere to budge to."

"It opens up. Move back."

Juliet turned onto hands and knees and scrambled back. Her borrowed blue oversuit - Liz's old one; Uncle Ralph had given it to her years before, more in hope than expectation that James Lester would find time to take the oldest of his children caving - disappeared into the darkness, which crowded around the edge of her helmet light’s beam as it moved on and down the cave. Liz watched her go, then wedged her toes into the same crack and pushed herself up with ease. Juliet walked through obstacles Liz had to wriggle through, but there was no denying it was sometimes very useful to be a lot taller.

She crawled through and found Juliet sitting in the broader chamber with her back to the wall and her knees drawn up, admiring the stone formations on the opposite wall. Liz sidled over - she couldn't stand up straight in here; even Juliet had to stoop - and settled next to her.

"I just notice we've lost your dad and Lyle, and I don't think that's smart." Juliet rested her head absent-mindedly on Liz's shoulder.

"We haven't lost them. They're like five minutes back."

"They sound further away." 

"Sound carries weirdly." Liz got out the survey and traced their route with a finger. "I've been here several times, it's one of Dad's favourites. This is where Jon said we should go on ahead a bit, and this is where he said we should wait. And that's where we are now."

"Oh. Good." Juliet got out a Twix bar and pulled her gloves off to unwrap it, automatically passing half to Liz, who stuffed most of it into her mouth in one go. "That's disgusting. Why did they stop, anyway?"

"Probably to talk work," Liz said wisely, through a mouthful of crumbs.

"That is _also_ disgusting - _ew_ -" 

Juliet shoved Liz's shoulder, and Liz cackled and shoved her back. 

"Finish your stupid Twix," Juliet said. "Why are they talking work now, anyway?" 

"Fuck knows." Liz chewed the last fragment of Twix thoughtfully, and swallowed. "Dad's worried about something. Someone called Christine. It's making him really touchy, he has me messaging him with updates all the time, and last week someone who wasn't the usual Ocado delivery guy showed up and Dad wouldn't let me open the door. He made Jon do it."

There was a thoughtful, uncomfortable pause.

"Do you ever wonder…" Juliet began uncertainly, before eating her own Twix half to give herself thinking room. "Like… what exactly it is they _do_."

"No," Liz said promptly, because she had a good enough idea not to want a better one. She'd actually set foot in the ARC, and even if it had been under crap circumstances and she hadn't really been in a position to register anything outside her own head, she still felt she knew too much. Juliet, too. Though Liz was the only one who had even half an explanation for the creature that had cut short their Duke of Edinburgh expedition years before, Juliet had been there too, and she'd seen… whatever it was they'd seen.

"Right," Juliet said, folding up the Twix wrapper meticulously and frowning at her hands. Juliet was used to having explanations for everything; Liz, who had grown up in a world of unspoken words fostered by her parents' divorce and her brother's illness, was much more confident with the unsaid.

"They'd tell me if it was important," Liz said, "and if there was. You know. Anything I could do about it. We're just kids, Juliet."

"Yeah."

"There's no point making something out of nothing."

"Yeah," Juliet repeated, tucking the wrapper away.

There was a moment's quiet. 

"Do you have another Twix?" Juliet said. "I only brought the one."

"Yep," Liz said, rummaging in her pockets. "But eat it fast. I can hear Jon coming, and he's a chocolate thief."

When the adults arrived, they were still laughing hysterically, hands over their mouths to catch the crumbs.


End file.
